Latah and Whitman counties added a total of 126 COVID-19 cases over the weekend and Monday.
Sixty-nine of the cases were recorded in Latah County, increasing the total in the county to 1,411. Of those, 1,349 cases are confirmed and 62 cases are probable, according to Public Health - Idaho North Central District. Of those infected in Latah County, 855 recovered and one died. A daily record of 120 cases was reported Friday in Latah County.
Of the 69 new cases, seven are in the 5-12 age range, two are 13-17, 28 are 18-29, 13 are in their 30s, seven are in their 40s, nine are in their 50s and three are in their 60s. Latah County is still in the moderate risk category, PH-INCD said.
Moscow School District Superintendent Greg Bailey said there have been 24 confirmed cases since the beginning of the school year this fall, doubling the number of cases from one week ago. Bailey said most of the 24 people infected did not contract the virus from being careless — for example, not wearing masks — but contracted it from being in small gatherings or from an infected family member.
Bailey reminded students and staff to take precautions even in small groups outside of school.
He said the school district has only had one “in-building transmission,” meaning almost every one of the 24 people infected contracted the virus from outside a Moscow school. The one in-building transmission was a result of the person not wearing a mask at times the school district believed the person should have worn one, Bailey said.
“This is why I’m a strong believer in mask wearing,” Bailey said. “It’s definitely helped.”
The University of Idaho said its positivity rate increased from 2.5 percent two weeks ago to 3.76 percent last week, including 66 positive tests, according to UI’s website Monday.
It said last week included random surveillance testing of asymptomatic students and employees, increased symptomatic testing and increased close contact testing after the six-day minimum wait period from last exposure. Next week will not include the random general surveillance testing, so the university expects an increase in the percent of positives as symptomatic testing will be a larger percentage of the overall tests conducted.In a memo Monday from UI President Scott Green and Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence to students, faculty and staff, 32 students are in isolation with five leaving today. UI has conducted more than 20,500 tests since August.PH-INCD also reported 154 new cases in Nez Perce County and 62 in Clearwater County from the weekend and Monday.
In Whitman County, 57 new positive COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the total to 2,067 cases, according to Whitman County Public Health. Three people are hospitalized with the virus and all others are stable and self-isolating. Twenty-two people have died from the virus.
The risk of spread in the county is high, WCPH said.
Of the 57 new cases, 11 are in the 0-19 age range, 32 are 20-39, 10 are 40-59, one woman is 60-79 and three are 80 or older.
There have been 221 cases in the last two weeks, including 147 in Pullman; 21 in Colfax; 10 in Palouse; 11 in Garfield; six each in Colton and Oakesdale, five in St. John, three each in Uniontown, Tekoa, Albion and Rosalia; two in Endicott; and one in LaCrosse.
